Unsure where Washington's in-the-know crowd is eating and drinking? It's easy to spot lines out the door, but some underlying trends are harder to see.
We took a data-driven look at the question, using Facebook to analyze which restaurants have been on the tips of diners' tongues this month.
To find out who made the list, we started by grouping Washington businesses on Facebook by category and counting how many reviews each received.
But rather than compare them based on number of reviews alone, we calculated a percentage increase in reviews over the past month, and tracked businesses that consistently increased their volume of reviews to identify statistically significant outliers compared with past performance.
In other words, we found those establishments that a lot of Facebook users suddenly started talking about. Read on to see which spots rose to the top.
St. Anselm
Open since September, St. Anselm, the D.C. counterpart to the Brooklyn tavern of the same name, is trending compared with other businesses categorized as "New American" on Facebook.
Citywide, New American spots saw review counts increase by a median of 2 percent over the past month, but St. Anselm saw a notable 103.2 percent increase, maintaining a perfect 5/5 rating on Facebook throughout.
It's not the only trending outlier in the New American category: Prather's on the Alley and Yard House have seen 16 and 15.8 percent increases, respectively.
Located at 1250 Fifth St. NE (between North Neal Place and North Morse Street) at Union Market, St. Anselm offers a steakhouse-like menu of grilled meats, eclectic wines and classic cocktails.
Union District Oyster Bar & Lounge
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about the Union District Oyster Bar & Lounge, the seafood-specialized lounge is a hot topic, according to Facebook review data.
While businesses categorized as "multi-cuisine" on Facebook increased their review count by a median of 2.5 percent over the past month, Union District Oyster Bar & Lounge bagged a 75 percent increase in reviews within that timeframe, and now holds a 4.8/5 rating.
There's more that's trending on Washington's seafood scene: Hot N Juicy Crawfish has seen a 7.1 percent increase in Facebook reviews.
Open at 501 Morse St. NE (between North Sixth and North Fifth streets) since September, Union District Oyster Bar & Lounge offers seafood-based appetizers, mains and even pizzas (see the oyster-and-mozzarella option), plus loads of whiskies, wines and craft cocktails.
Union Pub
Capitol Hill's Union Pub is also making waves. The well-established tavern at 201 Massachusetts Ave. NE has seen an 8.2 percent bump in reviews over the last month, compared with a median review increase of 2.2 percent for all businesses tagged "American" on Facebook.
Union Pub offers burgers, pizzas and bar bites to go with its beers on tap, which range from mainstream to rare. Over the past month, it's maintained a 4.2/5 rating among Facebook reviewers.
Supra
Last up, Shaw's Supra is the city's buzziest bar by the numbers.
The Georgian wine bar, which opened at 1205 11th St. NW (between North M St. and North North Street) in November 2017, increased its review count by 9.9 percent over the past month, an outlier when compared with the median review increase of 1.9 percent for the Facebook category "Bars." It outperformed the previous month by gaining 2.1 times more reviews than expected based on past performance.
It's not the only trending outlier in the bar category: UltraBar has seen a 7.6 percent increase in reviews, and El Centro has seen an 8.5 percent bump.
Supra offers a huge selection of Georgian wine to pair with traditional Georgian food like kebabs, stuffed breads and soup dumplings.
